Bluebird Kitchen

Bluebird Kitchen reminds me of something you’d find in NYC. It’s one of the fancier take-​out places for breakfast and lunch here in downtown Pittsburgh. You can tell a lot of thought was put into building the menu because it’s not your average sandwiches and salads; it seems slightly gourmet. I’ve tried a couple things here and they’ve all tasted well put-​together and very fresh. On top of their regular menu items, they have a daily special along with changing salad options and not to mention their baked goods. The few downfalls to Bluebird Kitchen are the space is small with very minimal seating, the layout is slightly awkward, so if you’re not familiar with the place, it’s hard to figure out where to order vs. where to pay, and it’s only open until 3pm Mon-​Fri, which was a real bummer for me when I use to live downtown.

The baked goods are excellent. I really like the cookies.
The sandwich portions are small for the price and not really all that good. The food is nice looking, but the taste just wasn’t there. I had the turkey, bacon, avocado.
If you want a fancy sandwich, stick with Thin Man in the strip.

I had such high hopes for this place. I Arrived at 10:40 am and was told it is between lunch and breakfast therefore only the pastries and drinks are available. Breakfast service had just stopped and lunch would start at 11. Oh well, I said and ordered a cappucino. It’s the sloppiest cappuccino I’ve ever been served. Maybe they’re just new? I asked them how long they’d been open– 3 years. I won’t be returning.

I once asked myself, «Where do all the young professionals of this fine rust belt city wait in line for fancy carry out lunches?»
The answer is Bluebird. It is all pretty good, somewhat high minded, scratch made kind of stuff. It is generally pretty fast and friendly service.

I came here for breakfast before a conference, I was excited to try some local breakfast places. I think the highlight of my breakfast was the freshly squeezed orange juice: it was very sweet, natural, and definitely the champion of the day.
I ordered the local fresh eggs on ciabatta with the house made sausage. I would have given a four if the bread had been toasted, but it wasnt. The sausage had good flavor, but I would have liked a little salt on my eggs. All in all a good breakfast. If I am back in town I would try the pastries, they looked and smelled amazing.

Grossly underwhelmed with my visit to Bluebird this morning. I’ve been hearing so many great things about it, and just had to try it. I was met with fairly rude service, and when I tried to order breakfast I was told that they had stopped serving breakfast. So I tried to order lunch, but was told they weren’t serving lunch. So my pickings were pretty slim. I had a slice of the Quiche and the small Sweet Potato Hash. The hash was quite flavorful, however the «small» size is more like a spoonful (plus it was lukewarm). The quiche was ok, but it tasted pretty watery and lacked a lot of flavor you’d expect to taste in a Quiche.
I love the concept of this restaurant, I just had a bad experience. It seems silly to me to drop $ 9 on a pretty mediocre (and SMALL) breakfast. I’ll be back to try lunch sometime, I’m just not in a huge hurry.

Nice little restaurant in downtown Pittsburgh. Super friendly staff and nice ambiance.
Wife and I got to their restaurant close to 10:30 AM, but their breakfast was already over and were switching to lunch. So we just got their oatmeal. Really wished we got there just a bit earlier because if their oatmeal represented their breakfast menu, it must have been amazing!
Not much sitting area though — it’s definitely one of those places where you go in, eat real quick and leave. Only stools lining the wall. Lunch looks good too, but didn’t go.

I visited the restaurant around 9:30 in the morning. There was a line 4 people deep at the cash register and 4 people deep where you order your food. There was only one young lady trying to take care of all of these people. There were other workers in the kitchen but no one came out to help.
When it was finally my turn to order I ordered a Frittata. It came on a ciabatta bun with lettuce and tomato. The frittata had goat cheese, potatoes and sausage. After I ordered I moved over to the cash register line. It took awhile to get the frittata and they forgot that I had also ordered a mocha (coffee). So then I had to wait for them to make that.
I took my food and coffee to go and went to enjoy the nice day while sitting at a table at Market Square. The mocha was very good and very strong. The ciabatta bun was fresh as for the actual frittata there was only one or two small pieces of sausage. There were a lot of potatoes. It seemed more like a potato sandwich. For a breakfast that cost $ 12 I expected better service and better food. I brought home a menu to see if anything caught my eye enough to make me want to go back and try lunch.

My mom and I popped in to the Bluebird Kitchen on Thursday morning during a long bike ride. I had a cinnamon roll and a chai latte and she had a hot tea and a egg in a basket. The location is a little unexpected (we went to the one on the ground floor of the First Niagara building) and the hours they keep don’t permit me to visit very often. They are open 7 – 2 on weekdays and not at all on weekends to my knowledge. The food was delicious but I was sad that they didn’t have the selection of cookies and other treats I see featured on their Instagram account. I’m going to need to make a special trip to the Market Square location before school starts! Good food and nice beverage selection — great brunch stop!

«Discovered» Blue Bird Kitchen via Instagram while visiting Pittsburgh for the week. I normally don’t do repeats when traveling, especially in Pittsburgh where I have many favorites. I made an exception this time however! I stopped in twice for lunch this week, and was very pleased both times.
Somehow I managed to hit the line perfectly on both visits, but the line is a good indicator of how delicious the food is here! The first visit I got a roast beef sandwich, on nicely chewy ciabatta. I took it down to nearby Market Square and enjoyed it while listing to some great live music.
My second visit, I tried the Cuban and a cinnamon brown sugar macaron – flavor explosion! I removed one extra fatty piece of pork from my sandwich, but that’s a personal preference/​texture issue with me. The macaron was perfect! With tip, my lunch was less than $ 15 both visits, which was awesome! They also had a limited dining area, which I took advantage of today, since there was a busy farmers market going on at Market Square.
My next trip to Pittsburgh I want to try their quiche, it looked really good, as did their layer cake of the day. I will also pack more stretchy pants, because I think I gained 5 pounds this week, eating my way through the ‘burgh!

I keep coming back here because the items are attractive, ingenious, and the staff is amazing– it is rare that, especially in a large city, I return to places with inconsistent marks, but damn, that was a fine cake. And it has only been finer.
Since my last visit, I have swooned over Bluebird’s delicious Instagram and have eagerly come back for their chocolate peanut butter cake, sage and brown butter nectarine, and nearly French, perfect macarons. I’m still iffy on their savory items, but await tomorrow’s breakfast sandwich with gusto. When all is said and done, I think this is an awfully special bakery.

I finally stopped in for lunch after following Bluebird Kitchen on Instagram for while lusting after their unique baked goods.
I came in around 11am to beat the rush (a line had formed by noon) and was greeted with very friendly service. Having not been there before, I didn’t realize you placed your order at the beginning of the counter, and then made your way down to the register. I ordered at the register unknowingly and they kindly took my order there instead.
I had a Cuban, which was warm and toasty and delicious. The pickles and mustard added the perfect tangy flavor to the sandwich. My only complaint is that the piece pork belly on my sandwich was a little fatty, but this was not a problem as I picked it off and ate the good parts as the sandwich was still loaded with ham. Overall, it was a very satisfying lunch.
I ended up going back up after my sandwich to order an oatmeal sandwich cookie– which was huge and delicious– the filling wasn’t too sweet.
This place is a little on the pricier side, but completely worth it in my opinion for the noticeably quality ingredients, attentive service, and fresh bright atmosphere that makes for a relaxing lunch break. I will definitely be stopping in again to try the delicious sounding soups and more baked goods!

I was very much looking forward to checking this place out for lunch. I ordered the Pain Bagnat, Soup, Cookie, and a water for $ 17.00. I was expecting it to live up to the price tag. When I got back to my desk I discovered that I received some sort of chicken salad concoction instead and since I can’t eat mayo it was a loss.
The soup was good for the first few spoons. Then what was left looked like a gob of nasty so that, too, was a wash. The cookie was good at least and water never disappoints. Looks like I’ll be hitting up the vending machine with what little cash I have left. Bummer.
Maybe I just caught them on an off day judging from all the good reviews. Way too expensive for what you get regardless.

When I want something… I want it then and there… Not at a later date… it doesn’t count then… this place is always busy… iv been here twice… for breakfast and lunch… both times was pretty busy and slow… i really don’t like how this place closes at three pm… too dame early!
for breakfast… i order their coconut oatmeal without the dried fruits… its a really healthy and hearty breakfast… I can actually see myself eating that every morning! if that doesn’t fill you up their coconut scones is deli-​sh as well… not too sweet but still flavorful… their breakfast items changes daily! so ask for their daily specials!
for lunch i order their Cuban sandwich! might be one of the best sandwiches here! pork belly… throw in some shredded cheddar cheese while their making them… sourdough bread in the toaster. with sweet pickles. topped with special spicy mustard sauce! yummies!
area is limited to seating… service is OK… no outlets or restrooms!

Woohoo — Breakfast redemption! So my less than stellar reviews in the past had to do with my lunch experiences at Bluebird but this morning I went there for a breakfast sandwich and was not let down.
I had the fried egg sandwich on a pretzel roll with sausage. It was hearty and delicious which is exactly what I needed. It was freshly made as you can tell with the eggs — the eggs weren’t industrially processed to look like a white and yellow cookie. No, these were real eggs cracked open on a skillet and put into a sandwich.
There were tomato slices and greens. I think the pretzel roll was a good option as the salt on the bun offered a little something to the unseasoned eggs. The sausage was a nice complement as well to the sandwich. They had some amazing looking pastries but I resisted.
I guess I know when I’ll be heading over to Bluebird — the early morning when the birds are chirping!
I appreciate the owner reaching out to acknowledge my less than stellar reviews. I’m glad that I got to give it another chance.

Being able to make «put a bird on it!”-related jokes is probably the only reason I didn’t give this place 1 star. I was in Pittsburgh for an extended weekend, and having already had some great food on the Square, thought to hit this place up. Let’s start with the food and drinks: coffee was mediocre at best, and although they told me my Americano had four shots, it certainly didn’t taste like it. Food? Dismal. I had a Cuban that should be emargoed, and the price was Bay of Pigs-​level ridiculous.
But here’s the kicker! You can serve crap coffee, barely edible food, and STILL be a decent café as LONG AS your staff is moderately friendly. But not so at Bluebird! I was not thanked for my purchase, I was questioned when I asked for the WiFi password to be written down for me, and was neither greeted nor even given a friendly goodbye by the 3 staff that were busy thinking of other creative ways to be rude to their clientele (I can only assume). I know what you’re thinking: they were probably super busy painting birds on things, and just didn’t have the time… NOPE! My friend and I were the only ones in the restaurant.
In conclusion. Save your hard earned coins for a place that will at least serve you a half-​decent cup o’joe.

This was a perfect lunchtime destination for a trio of conference attendees unfamiliar with the downtown Pittsburgh area and looking for something involving vegetables. One of our group had been to some kind of major meat-​o-​rama meal the night before and was craving salad. So I popped «salad» into the Unilocal app, and it sent us here.
There were salads indeed, as well as sandwiches and soups. What there wasn’t was much in the way of seats, so we were lucky to be only three and to find room at a side counter. I had the April’s vegetarian sandwich, and my companions both had a tuna nicoise salad. Although my sandwich was good, I think my lunchmates got the better deal. There was simply more food there. I was still hungry after my sandwich.
I tried to order an infamous vegan cookie (I say «infamous» like I know anything about it, but I was just going by the Unilocal reviews), but they were all out. I was partially assuaged by the availability of green tea.

To all my GF friends out there, this is for you:
I stop into Bluebird once or twice a month. My go-​to is usually their pre-​made salad with tuna, oven dried tomato, tomato, haricot vert, hard boiled egg, olives, avocado, and mustard vinaigrette. Delicious, filling and worth the $ 9. I have tried select GF options from their fresh food bar but unfortunately, their portion sizes for the price are VERY poor. However, I can’t knock down their rating to 3 stars for that. They make up for it with their GF dessert options. The peanut butter bacon cookie= HOLY DELICIOUS! Sometimes, they offer it as a cookie sandwich with a sweet cream filling. I treat myself to this mouth watering creation a few times a year. If I could get away with it, I’d have one everyday! There are other GF desserts and from what I’ve tried, they are worth every penny.
Now that I’ve read the reviews of their lattes, I will have to pair one with my favorite cookie next time I treat myself!

***UPDATE***
After my last review, I got a message from Liz M., the owner of the Blue Bird, stating, «I hope you will give us a second chance to fill you up. I think a sandwich just might do the trick…». I feel that if an owner of a business bothers to reach out to me after a review, I owe it to that person to follow up. So today I stopped into the Blue Bird for lunch and ordered the Cuban sandwich.
Although it was pretty busy, the staff was very cheerful and courtious and I moved through the line rather quickly. But after paying for my order, I waited for about 15 minutes to get my Cuban, which, in my opinion is a little longer than average for lunch. But like I said, it was busy and there were pleanty of orders to be filled before mine.
There’s very limited seating at the Blue Bird so I took my sandwich back to my office which is only about a five minute walk. The sandwich held up well and was still warm when I unwrapped it. Paying $ 9.10 (tax included here) for a sandwich isn’t what I’d call being thrifty but after one bite I could tell that this sandwich was worth every penny! The ciabatta was firm but not too hard. The pork belly and ham blended well with the pickle and mustard. The serving size was just perfect for a hearty appetite (I skipped dinner last night and only had a cup of coffee for breakfast today). I’m upping the rating to four stars for a delicious sandwich!

I have been hearing great things about Bluebird Kitchen, so I was very pleased to find out it could live up to the hype. All the food was freshly and creatively prepared. I tried the Cuban plus a Hazelnut Oatmeal cookie, and both were really tasty.
I don’t get Downtown much during the day, however it’s good to know there is a really good option for lunch and breakfast.
I was also surprised to find out there are 2 locations, the second location is on Smithfield.